After 20 years in operation, Clark County’s only ice rink is closing this summer.
Mountain View Ice Arena recently posted a letter on its Facebook page, alerting people to the closure and thanking them for their business. All passes and punch cards will expire on Aug. 31, the last day people can skate.
The east Vancouver ice rink is owned by Portland-based City Bible Church, which in 2016 signaled that it would remodel the building and open an elementary school.
City Bible purchased the building at 14313 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd. in 2006 and converted one portion into a church. The Vancouver church campus is one of four in the Portland metro area. City Bible could not be reached for comment before press time Thursday.
“Please understand that this is an extremely difficult decision” for City Bible Church and that “they have been nothing but kind and generous” since taking over ownership of the rink, the letter from Mountain View Ice Arena said.
Bob Knoerl, who’s been manager of the ice rink since 2008, said that about a year ago the church had floated Aug. 31 as the ice rink’s final day, and then that date was recently finalized. He said that particular date was chosen so City Bible has a year to build the school.
Greg Turner, land use planning manager with the city of Vancouver, said the city had a preliminary application conference for City Bible’s proposed school in November 2016, but the church has not done anything else in the permitting process. The project awaits a site plan review, he said.
The preliminary application said City Bible planned to convert the ice rink into a 20,000-square-foot facility for around 200 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
Mountain View Ice Arena opened in 1998 and initially had two rinks.
Former Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding still skates at Mountain View. The Portland Winterhawks practiced there until the facility’s sale to City Bible in 2006. It was on the market for about 18 months before being purchased by the church. Knoerl said 2,000 to 3,000 people use the rink on a weekly basis, including 32 adult hockey teams and eight youth hockey teams. Although Mountain View hosts groups, classes and birthday parties, ice rinks in markets without National Hockey League franchises have struggled to survive.
An online petition to keep the rink open for one more year garnered nearly 500 signatures by Thursday evening. People have also sent City Bible letters.
“They’re reading them and they’re understanding that this is something that’s going to be grave,” Knoerl said.
Nearby rinks include Lloyd Center Ice Rink in Portland, Sherwood Ice Arena in Sherwood, Ore., and Winterhawks Skating Center in Beaverton, Ore., where the Winterhawks currently practice.
Knoerl said he’s exploring what it would take to open an ice rink somewhere else in Clark County, which he estimates would cost $4.5 million to $5 million. A temporary solution would be to install a sheet of ice in an existing building.
